Former prime minister Gordon Brown has returned to the political front line to make a “positive, principled, forward-looking case” for Scotland to stay in the UK.
Mr Brown, who left Downing Street three years ago, called for a “Union for social justice” and argued that remaining in the UK will benefit people in Scotland.
Pooling and sharing UK resources allows people to benefit from pensions, the NHS and the national minimum wage, the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath said.
He made the comments at the launch of United With Labour, the party’s own campaign to keep Scotland in the UK. Voters in Scotland will decide the country’s future in an independence referendum on September 18 next year.
Speaking in Glasgow, Mr Brown said: “I want to to put the case for the pooling and sharing of resources right across the United Kingdom, and the benefit we all get in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland from UK pensions, from UK National Insurance, from UK funding of healthcare, from the UK minimum wage.
“There are equal social, political and economic rights for people no matter which community you live in, no matter whether you are in a poor area or a rich area of the country.
“I could put the case for the Union by talking about how our defence needs are common, our security needs are mutual, our environmental concerns are shared, that we are part of one single island. But I want to make the case, the most modern case for the Union, for the pooling and sharing of resources so that we are in a position to tackle poverty, unemployment together.
“We are in a position to fund a National Health Service based on the principle that it is free at the point of need. Therefore, I want to make the case for a Union for social justice, dominated by our principle of fairness.”
Having a Scottish Parliament as part of the UK gives people in Scotland “the best insurance policy I think we could have in the world”.
Mr Brown began his speech by saying that in the “last few years I have had time on my hands, time to reflect, courtesy of the British people”.
Having done so, he now wants to “put the positive, principled, forward-looking case for a strong Scottish Parliament inside a strong United Kingdom”.